At a swearing-in ceremony at the White House, Mr Trumpsaid he was beginning the judicial swearing-in ceremony differently this time, by apologising to Justice Kavanaugh and his family over the way he had been treated.

Questions from Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump's two high-court picks, suggested they could vote against the Trump administration and side with a criminal defendant from Florida who is fighting an increase in his sentence from just over six years to possibly more than 15 years.

The clerks are Kim Jackson, who previously worked for Kavanaugh on the federal appeals court in Washington, Shannon Grammel, Megan Lacy and Sara Nommensen. Kavanaugh had said during his confirmation hearing in September that he would hire an all female clerk if confirmed. "My focus now is to be the best justice I can be".

Before the arguments began, Chief Judge John Roberts welcomed Kavanaugh to the court.

He said: "Although the Senate confirmation process tested me as it has tested others, it did not change me".

Kavanaugh joins the Supreme Court today after he was sworn in at a private ceremony on Saturday and a public ceremony on Monday, report the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post in stories here and here.

The latest justice to join the bench, Neil Gorsuch, spoke a year ago during his swearing-in at the White House Rose Garden. He helped to vet Roberts and Alito when Kavanaugh was working as a lawyer in the White House. "Awful statements that were totally untrue that he knew nothing about - frankly terms that he probably never heard in his life", Trump said at the International Association of Chiefs of Police meeting.

James Franco accused of assault by co-star Busy PhillipsRoger Howarth took over the part of Franco in 2013 when we learned the character committed his many crimes due to a brain tumor. She claims Franco broke character at that point and let his fury show by screaming at her and physically attacking her.

Kavanaugh's installation cements the strongest conservative majority on the court since the New Deal, delivering on a decades-long ambition of the American right. "No one who felt the force of that anger could possibly believe that Kavanaugh might actually be a detached and impartial judge". "If Justice Roberts sits on the complaints, then they will reside in a kind of purgatory and will never be adjudicated", said New York University law professor Stephen Gillers.

Kavanaugh thanked some of the senators key to his confirmation, including Maine Republican Susan Collins and West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, who sealed the bare majority needed to confirm him.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, fresh off a confirmation process that featured one of the most polarizing and politicized hearings in modern times, will take the bench on Tuesday for the start of a new era that is expected to take the court decidedly to the right.

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the court a year ago.

Media captionTrump: "The main base of the Democrats have shifted so far left we'll end up being Venezuela".

A NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist survey released last week indicated that McConnell's excitement might be warranted: After trailing Democrats in enthusiasm during the summer, Republican enthusiasm for voting has caught up.